Colorverse - Alpha CMa
Alpha (a) CMa is the darkest of the three blues in the Colorverse Constellation series. (I’ve included a swatch card comparison image next to the other two blues, and several others for comparison.) It takes its name from Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. In the Colorverse catalog, it’s ink 016.
At first glance, this is a fairly standard, dusky blue, but there are subtle complexities that emerge based on the chosen paper. This is a greyish, evening blue, and I see murky hints of yellow. As you can see in the chromatography image, there are tiny traces of pink influences here, as well. The splatter shows a bit of reddish-gold sheen, but none was visible in writing. On coated papers, there’s also a moderate amount of shading that projects a lighter blue with more prominent grays. This is a go-anywhere color and ink, usable in any setting.
Like many in the series, Alpha CMa is a nice, wet ink. It’s controlled in writing, and very well-behaved. A slightly darkened edging keeps strokes clean and well-defined and makes this a very nice writing ink for the reader. Drying is reasonably quick, and there were no problems with feather on any of the six papers tested.
Colorverse Alpha CMa is a nice ink, but it’s a bit bland on uncoated papers. Coated papers help bring out the shading and stroke-edging. That’s also where the subtle undertones can be seen, so I recommend you pair it with coated papers for the most fun. Enjoy!